A first look at Bradford Live
When Stuart and I established Crysp - property compliance at your fingertips - we wanted to select a city for our northern operations that we felt was up and coming. Potentially, dare I say it, even a bit of an underdog City, which reflected our own spirit in this entrepreneurial journey of ours, as Crysp begins to take on established market incumbents.
As a Bradfordian myself (and still proud to live in the City), I couldn’t think of a better choice than Bradford, to reflect our values as a company, but also access the diverse talent that exists across the City itself.
My feeling on the City is that it is a sleeping giant, often overlooked by businesses as a viable location because of their fears of attracting that very talent.
Therein lies the problem. If we all continue to think like that, the city will never truly eclipse the shadow of its neighbour Leeds. The potential is there - a fantastic diverse well educated talent pool, good transport infrastructure, and some of the most affordable office space in the UK right now. For us it was a no brainer!
So, with all that said, you can imagine my absolute delight to be invited as a guest of Clarion Solicitors to join a roundtable discussion supporting the City’s 2025 cultural bid. The discussion addressed some really important points that as a business community we can support as build towards that bid for 2025. All the ingredients are there for us to be selected as a city.
The absolute icing on the cake of the day was to have a personal tour with the other business leaders, by the founders and management team of the Bradford Live venue, a not-for-profit organisation led by Lee Craven, Chris Morrell and Kirsten Branston. They are all incredibly passionate about the City, and the promise that Bradford Live will deliver, as it further drives Bradford’s rejuvenation.
For those that don’t know, Bradford Live is located at the former Odeon Cinema and dance hall, in the heart of the City. It is currently being expertly restored to its former glory, in its new guise as a world class entertainment venue.
The city has been crying out for a venue like this, and having seen how the Leeds City Arena boosted the night-time and hospitality industries, I feel certain the same halo effect will happen here.
What’s more the venue will attract thousands of people each week to see their favourite acts, and it only takes a few of those to walk through the City and think “hang on, we should set up our operation here …”
I’d like to give a special thank you to our hosts Clarion, in particular Stephen Crow and Lauren Perry for the invitation, and the generosity of time from Kirsten, Lee and Chris.
You can find out more about Bradford Live
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